1500 Death Guard - Pure

So, this is the Death Guard list I'm working towards, adhering firmly to the fluff for the most part (apart from the lord on bike, but I reason that he's too bloated to walk around otherwise).
So, no Lash of Submission here. All nice and rotten.

Chaos Lord Anthroticus
Mark of Nurgle, daemon weapon, bike
180

7 plague marines
2x plasma guns, rhino
226

7 plague marines
2x plasma guns, rhino
226

7 plague marines
2x plasma guns
191

7 plague marines
2x plasma guns
191

7 plague marines
2x plasma guns
191

'Nemesis' vindicator
daemonic possession
145

'Bubonix' Defiler
150

Thoughts? I'd considered taking a couple of obliterators instead of the defiler, but I love the model and it offers a lot of conversion opportunities, as well as a battlecannon.

A Death Guard army adherring strictly to fluff doesnt have any vehicles. Even prior to the heresy didn't use many vehicles, relying on their steady and slow advance. After that the few vehicles they had have all but rotted away, falling prey to corrosion and other misuse. Terminators and Plague Marines. That's the way to go. And sorcerers and Princes. But this is just if you goes all fluff.

"The more choices you force the opponent to make, the better the chance for you to capitalize on his mistakes"

Mortarion was well-educated, if narrowly. Matters of culture, history, philosophy were often alien to him, but on the subject of dealing death, he was a prodigy. Mortarion believed that victory came through sheer relentlessness, and communicated that ethic throughout the Death Guard. Their weapons and armour were rarely the most expertly artificed, certainly not the most beautifully-ornamented, but functioned without flaw. The Death Guard did not manoeuvre fancifully, or confognd their opponents; they picked the best ground upon which to fight, then smashed their foes after they had broken themselves against the Death Guard line. There was no environment which Mortarion and the Death Guard feared. What Mortarion and his adepts could not devise means to compensate for, the Death Guard overcame through sheer resilience.
Mortarion learned battle in a theatre of rocky mountainous terrain, without benefit of machinery. Though his considerable intellect allowed him to grasp the value of such support when his elevation to Primarch of a Space Marine Legion made such things as tanks and transport available, the primacy of the foot soldier remained ever the trademark of the Death Guard. Mortarion preferred to utilise huge waves of infantry, well-equipped and highly-trained on an individual level. He demanded that they be able to function and fight in almost any kind of atmosphere, and gave little emphasis on specialised units using jump packs or bikes. In fact, the Death Guard did not have dedicated Assault and Tactical squads as such; all his Space Marines were expected by Mortarion to be equally adept with bolter, pistol and close combat weapon, to fight with whatever weapon circumstance dictated. Such doctrine lent itself well to the use of Tactical Dreadnought armour, and the Death Guard regularly used Terminators before the Heresy. The Death Guard were particularly renowned for their success at such high-risk missions as space hulk clearance and the Plague Marines continue that success, using hulks to spread disease, infection and the cult of Nurgle throughout the body of the Imperium. The combat doctrine which served the Death Guard so well in life now suits the damned character of the Plague Marines to perfection.

Few of the tanks and transports of the Legion still function, their upkeep and maintenance being no priority to Space Marines dedicated to the Incarnation of Rot and Decay. Some such constructs do soldier on, possessed by minor daemonic entities or infested and animated by Nurgling hordes, the swarming worker drones of the Lord of the Unclean.

A defiler would be very useful in rocky terrain, and a vindicator... well, I daresay Mortarion would have liked the giant cannon on the front as much as I do.
They'll be acting as support for the PMs which is really all they'd be used for. Death Guard would never use them exclusively to assault, but I can see them advancing while shells whistled overhead to weaken the enemy, already in disarray having broken against the firing line of the marines.

If I was really adhering to fluff, I'd have 7 units of 7, but I can't feasibly fit that into 1500 points and still have a list that could be competetive. I love fluff as much as the next man but I won't sacrifice game playability for it.

Well I think its a nice list, and honestly you can do whatever you want, its your list, whether you want to stick stricly to the fluff or not. IMO your list looks pretty fluffy to me.

Competitive wise, I think it looks alright. I know you like the defiler, but your army just does not have enough AT. Obliterators would be helpful. Now, if you really wanted to keep the defiler you could switch out the plasmas for meltas in the rhino squads and see how that works out.

Another thing, the lord on the bike is good, but unfortunately he can be picked out with a high str weapon and dropped quickly. I don't know if you are willing to do this, but instead of the lord you can have a DP with MoN and either nurgles rot or warptime. Although its completely up to you.

@DeathInc: the Lord is pretty damn tough, as lords go! I plan to leave him out of LOS when deploying, so he'll be safe enough if I don't get first turn, and I can turbo-boost up and rely on T4(6) and a 3+ inv to keep me alive.

Anti-tank: hmm, you're right. However, I can't stand obliterators; they offer great conversion potential but in small games they're unfluffy and far overused. I'd take some in 2000pts.

As for trading out plasma... WHAT? Mortarion would curse you. PLASMA IS NURGLE'S HAPPY-BRINGER.

I might consider using something else than a defiler in some games, which would probably be a small unit of chosen w/ mark of nurgle and meltaguns, outflanking. That would be nasty against tanks.

Note, however, that armour 13 can still be glanced with plasma, and 12 can be penetrated. And that I have a S10 ap2 ordnance which seems very good at taking down tanks, at least in the games I've played on Vassal40k.